February 15, 2009

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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Football is America's favorite pastime.

Though baseball and basketball have enough fans to keep 'em in business and individual sports are more equitable than team sports because they take deluded parents ("But you can't sit my son because he's the next Walter Payton!"), booster clubs, and coaches playing to school/community/personal politics and prejudices out of the equation, football is the ultimate team sport; requiring interdependence to complement individual ability to reach the common goal of victory.

Oops.

NASCAR is really #1.

Check the ratings.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY

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It's like mainline denominations.

Increasingly insignificant to irrelevant in our sociopoliticoreligioeconomic culture, mainliners have moved to the sidelines of interest/influence.

Parenthetically, I know one particular mainline denomination that claims over 2 million members; but if you checked their attendance and giving records, you'd have a hard time coming up with a million.

Just that one toothy guy in Texas who says nothing as eloquently as PBHO - uh, not really - and that inaugural praying pastor with so much purpose - uh, really - have more fans than the citation in the preceding sentence.

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I had a wonderful business administrator in a big church when I was a rising ecclesiastical superstar.

She guided me to the narthex on a late Friday afternoon, pointed to the freshly buffed tiles, and said with a mixture of pride and angst, "Isn't that beautiful? It's too bad it will be all scuffed up after Sunday."

She was a bean counter.

Lots of mainliners count beans.

Uh, it's about souls.

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Speaking of folks who don't get it, there was a "circle" in that same church that spent a lot of money to needlepoint pew cushions.

They were, again, beautiful; depicting Biblical scenes.

After we installed them in the front pews, the president asked us to rope 'em off so nobody could sit on 'em.

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Staying with the theme of shadowing truths, Illinois Senator Roland Burris has admitted Blago's brother asked for $ before he was appointed by Blago to the Senate.

While it's not really shocking to add another fellah to the Senate who is challenged when it comes to integrity, the, uh, disclosure is at odds with Burris' testimony in January that he never spoke to, uh, Blago's brothers or other "family" members about the seat vacated by you know who.

Fortunately, you know who cannot be connected by any of the dots connecting everybody else but him to the corrupt state of Illinois; especially Chicago.

As of today, Senators Durbin and Reid - who greased the path for Burris to slide/slither into the Senate - and you know who haven't commented.

Forget it, fellahs!

Now is not the time to start telling the truth!

It's all about the economy.

Truth be damned.

Uh, does anybody think truth could have something to say about our economy?

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Speaking of truth, Muslims are such warm and fuzzy religionists.

Just the other day, the Muslim founder of Bridges TV, a cable network with a slogan about "connecting people through understanding"...[Dang! That sounds familiar!]...dedicated to "improve the image of Muslims in the United States," was arrested (2/12/09) for chopping off the head of his wife.

Call me silly or narrow or just not "correct" enough for our sociopoliticoreligioeconomic culture but don't you think it's time for the MSM and its mainlining co-conspirators to tell the truth about Islam as a blood-curdling religion which is at its worst when it imitates its founder?

And before you spaghetti-headed way-lefters start, you can't blame Jesus for false witnesses to Him.

Jesus would never tell followers to chop off the heads of, uh, anybody.

Mohammad?

C'mon, be honest; or go back to the first link in this KD.

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Greg Koukl wrote about "The Death of Truth" for www.bethinking.org: "Since the sixties we have been in the throes of this quiet but desperate revolution of thought - the death of truth...the death of what the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer called 'true truth,' the extinction of the idea that any particular thing can be known for sure...The word truth means 'true for me' and nothing more..."

Truth or, uh, consequences: "When truth dies, all of its subspecies, such as ethics, perish with it. If truth can't be known, then the concept of moral truth becomes incoherent. Ethics become relative, right and wrong matters of individual opinion...The death of truth...has created a moral decay in which every debate ends with the barroom question, 'says who?'...

Conclusion: "If we reject truth, why should we be surprised at the moral turbulence that follows? As C.S. Lewis said, 'We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.'"

Postscript: "This is the chaotic and confusing world of moral relativism, a world made more confusing because moral relativism isn't even moral."

The evangelical remnant in the mainline resonates.

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I wrote about an injustice in a local school to two friends.

It was forwarded on; reminding me of a beverage coaster that I picked up at Outback Steakhouse and keep in my study: "No worries...and then I accidentally hit Reply All."

The people who allowed the injustice to fester got mad at me and took it out on some children who are close to me.

The "truth" of what I wrote was never disputed and I was never queried.

Instead, lies were fabricated to distract folks from dealing with the truth.

Such is life in a fallen world.

While I'm tempted to become a hyper-determinist, I choose to be involved.

I choose to look up, stand up, speak up, and act up for justice as personified in Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture.

I believe only truth liberates in the end and sooner than later.

When I look at our youth choir during their practices every Wednesday evening or see spirits crushed by political and prejudicial adults (see the second paragraph of the first section of this KD) and consider I am going to live longer with Jesus than anybody else, I cannot look the other way or shut up.

In other words, I am drawn into the conflict because of the Matthew 5:13-16 stuff.

Surely, if proven wrong, I will always recant and repent with remorse.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpSdABH_cu4

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Mail Time!

Pennsylvania: "As per your chrome pony fund, Jesus didn't ride into the city for His crucifixion on a HD. He rode a donkey. Therefore, I am contributing to the hay fund for your next transportation. It's called a bale-out."

Florida: "Ignore your sister and any other naysayers! Continue to shill for the pony! Just make sure your organ donor card is complete!"

Maryland: "Quoting RL in a positive light! Ugh! He should take one of those big fat cigars of his, light it, and stick it where the sun don't shine! I'm more scared of the neo-cons, religious right, and right wingnuts than I am of PBHO. Remember Barry Goldwater's response to Jerry Falwell: 'Every good Christian should kick Jerry Falwell's ass.'"

Oklahoma: "You wrote, 'When Jesus spoke, people were not confused about faith and morality. They were convicted/compelled/converted'...Sinners could not stay in His presence. They either had to leave or get saved!"

Near D.C.: "I took care of the beer thing my first weekend in my first pastorate. We were invited to a block party given by some church members. One said he hoped I wouldn't be offended by the ice chest full of beer. My response was to take one out and pop the top. That took care of that."

KDers are a feisty bunch...truthfully.

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Blessings and Love!